Approach to life at the end of lockdown

WE ARE now accustomed to the fact that lockdown has been extended beyond midnight on Thursday, to the end of April, at least – but then what?

Around the world, as countries have shut down manufacturing, merchandising and service businesses to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the big question is how they come out of this state, resuscitate the economy and return to some semblance of normality in our personal, professional and social lives.

The release of SA’s Covid-19 epidemic: Trends & Next Steps, prepared by a high-powered ministerial advisory group, provides a fascinating insight into South Africa’s unique situation.

While screening and testing are the current focus – and only then will we know how much community transmission there is – it does appear that South Africa is proving an exception in the expected curve of the pandemic that has been seen in other countries.

Certainly the government’s early interventions slowed viral spread but, the report warns, that this does not mean that we can avoid the worst of Covid-19, or that we can lift the stringent measures which are in place.

Lifting of generalised lockdown comes with the risk of undoing all the good achieved, and it needs to be carefully managed in stages, and monitored over a period of weeks, if not months.

The first countries to go into lockdown – such as China, Italy, and Spain – are taking tentative steps to get their economies going again, while Denmark plans to reopen junior schools.

For many others, like us, patience and understanding is required: France has extended its lockdown, while the UK says it is too early to think about a lockdown exit strategy.

What will be key in the period ahead is to find the safest and most sustainable way of getting children back in school, and people back to work, without reversing the gains we have made in warding off this terrible disease.

What we should prepare ourselves for is that this unprecedented and highly unusual situation will last well past the end of April. As President Cyril Ramaphosa noted in his Easter message, we are resilient people and the virtues of courage and sacrifice, optimism and compassion, which carried us to freedom, are once again being called upon in this new struggle.

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. JOAN DIDION

American writer